Caledonia crushed; Pro League teams dumped from Caribbean tourney

Editor Tuesday 25 March 2014 Global Football, Local Football 1 Comment

For the second time in the history of the Caribbean Club Championship, there will be no Trinidad and Tobago team among the final four outfits in the regional football competition.

Defending Pro League champion club, Defence Force, was eliminated after just one game as the “Teteron Boys” lost 2-0 to Guyana club, Alpha United, last Friday in the three team Group 3 in Jamaica. And, tonight, Caledonia AIA also failed to progress to the final round as the “Eastern Stallions” were mauled 4-0 by Jamaica’s Waterhouse in Haiti.

Photo: Caledonia AIA coach Jamaal Shabazz tries to inspire his charges against Toluca during the 2013 CONCACAF Champions League defeat in Mexico City. (Courtesy Francisco Estrada/JAM Media) — Photo: Caledonia AIA coach Jamaal Shabazz tries to inspire his charges against Toluca during the 2013 CONCACAF Champions League defeat in Mexico City.
(Courtesy Francisco Estrada/JAM Media)

Caledonia needed a win to top Group 2 as the Morvant/Laventille-based club trailed Waterhouse by goal difference after the first two group matches. Instead, Waterhouse led 1-0 at the break.

Coach Jamaal Shabazz pushed his players forward to get back into the match but the tactic backfired as the Jamaican club wreaked havoc on the break and strolled to a lopsided victory with three second half goals.

The result ended Caledonia’s chance of playing in the CONCACAF Champions League for the third successive season while Waterhouse will dream of advancing to the Confederation’s showcase club competition for the first time.

Meanwhile, Defence Force at least ended its Caribbean campaign on a high note as 30-year-old ex-Trinidad and Tobago international striker Devorn Jorsling grabbed a second half double in a 2-0 win against Harbour View in Kingston.

Jorsling got his first goal in the 55th minute with a close range header off a right side Jemel Sebro cross and, four minutes from the end, he controlled on his thigh from an incisive, lofted Jerwyn Balthazar pass before lifting the ball over the onrushing custodian for the second.

Photo: Defence Force striker Devorn Jorsling scored twice in a 2-0 win over Harbour View in Jamaica. (Courtesy Wired868) — Photo: Defence Force striker Devorn Jorsling scored twice in a 2-0 win over Harbour View in Jamaica.
(Courtesy Wired868)

The army/coast guard combination returns to Pro League action on Saturday afternoon when the defending champion team facse North East Stars from 4 pm at Ato Boldon Stadium. The Teteron Boys are sixth in the nine-team standings and there is no room for slip ups if they are to finish in the top two and qualify for the 2015 Caribbean tournament.

The Caledonia team, which is seventh, has only a mathematical chance of qualifying for the next Caribbean competition although that is likely to change in just over a week.

The only other occasion that a Trinidad and Tobago Pro League club did not get into the final Caribbean round of qualifying was in 2005 when no team took part as North East Stars withdrew for financial reasons.

In 2004 and 2011, San Juan Jabloteh and Defence Force respectively were beaten in the semi-finals as the Pro League was unrepresented at CONCACAF level.

Trinidad and Tobago clubs qualified for the Confederation’s top competition on the other 12 occasions that the tournament was staged since the start of Semi-Professional Football League (SPFL), which was the forerunner to the present Pro League.